Jacob Sneed, Incendiary Concepts | Business Stories Magazine

So nice to meet you! First off, what’s your name? Tell our readers a bit about yourself: where you’re from originally and where you live now.

My name is Jacob Sneed, and I'm the owner of Incendiary Concepts LLC. I'm originally from Kansas City, where I went to Rockhurst High School, and I'm now based in Socorro, New Mexico. I'm a mechanical engineering student at New Mexico Tech, graduating in May 2027. Before transferring to New Mexico Tech in January 2025, I studied at Missouri S&T, where I worked in an explosives lab designing and testing explosive devices. I also led a research team that co-designed a large-scale concrete 3D printer for blast-resistant structures, and I presented that work at the Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium in Austin. Outside of school and the business, I'm into working on vehicles, vintage photography, and traveling to new places when I get the chance. I also really like to cook and experiment with recipes a lot. I used to work as a chef, so it's become another creative outlet.

Tell us one thing you love about where you live now.

Socorro is an odd place for me. At first, I hated it: no trees, miles and miles of different shades of brown, no rain, etc. Turns out, though, when you give it a chance, Socorro is actually very beautiful and serene. The mountain in front of my house and the clear desert skies create a quiet, scenic environment that helps extraordinarily with my focus on both school and the business.

Tell us a little more about what your company does and how it started. How does it help your customers?

Incendiary Concepts designs and 3D prints aftermarket parts for older vehicles, the kind of parts that either don't exist anymore or were never made in the first place. It started with my '96 K1500 farm truck, which had been in my family since it was brand new before it came into my possession. I needed to turn it into a daily driver, and a lot of the parts I wanted simply weren't available online. The one that bugged me most was the cupholders: they were too shallow or too small for any modern cup. Working long hours in the explosives lab at Missouri S&T, I spilled more Red Bull on that floor than I can count, so I designed a “hockey puck” adapter that fit both large and small cans. From there it snowballed into about 30 parts for my friends' trucks and mine. Since my roommate had started a similar 3D printing business for parts on his SUV, I started thinking about doing the same. Then, one day, it was no longer a thought: I bought a printer, put my parts up for sale online, and put my all into it.

Today, I model everything in SolidWorks, printing parts on my Bambu Lab printers, mainly with ABS and sometimes with nylon for higher-strength parts. The catalog mostly covers GM vehicles, ranging from the sharp-edged body styles of the late '80s to the bubbly 2010s. For customers, it means they can keep an older vehicle on the road while making it more livable and modern. Everything is printed to order and sold through the Incendiary Concepts eBay and Etsy stores, and from the business's website.

If someone wants to start a business, what advice would you give them?

Focus on what you can gain, not what you might lose. If every decision is about how you could fail, fear will keep you from being all you can be. When you focus on success, yes, you'll take on risk, but you'll gain far more than you could have by playing it safe. Also, don't let a slow start convince you to give up. I went for the first six months of my business before receiving my first order. But you have to keep pushing. Keep making things, keep coming up with new ideas, keep putting things out there. You never know when it will turn from nothing to overwhelming, but from my experience it can happen pretty fast. It's important to stay grounded and focused so you can always keep improving.

What is one piece of feedback from a happy customer or client that you won't forget?

I could go on all day about my customers, especially the ones I do custom orders for. Sometimes when I think the world is looking pretty bleak, I'll get an email, text message, or DM from a customer. They might be saying thank you, they might be sending me pictures of products, they might also be critiquing my work. But regardless of what they're doing, they are extremely polite, thankful and patient 99% of the time.

This was really shown to me recently, after I was hurt for about a month and spent about a week in the hospital this summer: I was past deadlines, missing messages, and had items shipping overdue. I finally broke and decided to send a message across all of my platforms: I'm hurt, I'm in the hospital, but I'll get to your orders as soon as I can. The response was heartwarming: everyone was wishing me luck, lots of “Hey man, are you ok? Is there anything I can do to help?” and “Take your time, get well soon.” Not a single person complained, and everyone was so supportive. It really helped me get through it.

Where do you see your company in the future?

I want to keep growing my catalogue to encompass vehicles from different manufacturers. I'm particularly interested in creating more Jeep and Toyota parts, because there is a real demand I've seen in those vehicles for parts that are no longer made.

What is the biggest misconception about your industry?

A lot of people assume 3D-printed parts are flimsy prototypes or novelty items. With the right design, material choice, and print settings, they can be real functional parts. I design in CAD with actual engineering considerations, print in materials like ABS and nylon chosen for heat and strength, and test parts in my own vehicles before they ever go online. The other misconception is that it's just pushing a button on a printer. At least for me, there's CAD work, printer maintenance and repair, the creation and revision of listings, packing and shipping, as well as attentive customer service behind every order.

What has been one of your biggest struggles building your business, and how did you deal with it?

The beginning. I launched in September 2024 and didn't make a single sale until March 2025. During that time I left my job and my school and moved across the country to keep pursuing my degree. I had spent almost everything I had on supplies so I could fill orders when they came, and sometimes I was choosing between dinner and printer filament. One day I was searching my business on the internet, to see if I was doing well, and I stumbled across a parts forum for some vintage motorcycles. I was so excited! Finally, my name was getting out there! After clicking the link, however, I realized that the forum was created because several customers disliked my parts. It killed me at first, but I took advantage of the situation: I made an account for the forum, posted on the thread, and asked the people what they wanted. What could I do to make it better? They loved it. I even got a few beta testers for new parts and revisions of parts. I still go back and forth with one of them to this day, and it was over a year ago!

Any shoutouts you want to make?

I had a pair of old friends who started a business a few years before I did, called Engineering Origins, based in Missouri. To Nick and Brendan: you guys really inspired me to work hard for what I want in life, and to never compromise on working with what makes your mind tick.